Ship-measured ocean temperature and saltiness by depth
What it measures. Ocean temperature and saltiness at different depths measured from a moving ship, plus extra readings like dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll (a sign of plant life), and how much the water scatters light. Values are organized onto a tidy 5-meter depth grid.
How it's made. Collected by sensors towed and dropped from research ships during the S-MODE field campaign off San Francisco in 2021-2023, then combined and binned into a single dataset.
How & where you'd use it. Helping scientists understand how small-scale ocean motions move physical and biological material up and down through the water.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2021-08-01 → 2023-05-31
- Measured byShips (CTD)
- Processing levelLevel 2
- Spatial extent-125.4, 36.3, -122.9, 38.1
- FormatsnetCDF-4
- StatusCOMPLETE
What you can do with it
- Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
- Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
- Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description
This dataset contains shipboard Underway conductivity, temperature, and depth (UCDT) measurements taken during the Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) field campaign. The experiment was conducted approximately 300 km offshore of San Francisco, during a pilot campaign that spanned two weeks in October 2021, and two intensive operating periods in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. S-MODE aims to understand how ocean dynamics acting on short spatial scales influence the vertical exchange of physical and biological variables in the ocean. The Underway CTD system contains a standard UCDT probe measuring conductivity, temperature, and pressure, as well as an augmented EcoCDT probe that concurrently measures both hydrographic and bio-optical data including conductivity, temperature, pressure, dissolved oxygen concentration, chlorophyll-fluorescence, and particulate backscatter at two different wavelengths. The level 2 data herein combines measurements from both the UCDT and EcoCDT into a single dataset, where for each variable, all profiles are binned onto a 5m vertical grid and merged into a 2-D matrix. Additional computed variables include backscatter baseline signal and backscatter spike signal. Data are available in netCDF format.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="SMODE_L2_SHIPBOARD_UCTD_ECOCTD_V1",
version="1",
bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9), # your area (W,S,E,N)
temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"), # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results) # stream straight from POCLOUD Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Data Use and Citation Guidelines VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Project Website for S-MODE hosted by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Project Landing Page for S-MODE on the PO.DAAC Website VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- Browse and download granules over HTTPS using the virtual directories GET DATA
- Browse granule search results in Earthdata Search GET DATA
- Generic data readers VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- 2022 S-MODE Open Data Workshop Information VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- 2022 S-MODE Open Data Workshop Presentations and Recordings VIEW RELATED INFORMATION